Hello all. I was hoping to get this information from people with boots on the ground. Can one use this software in place of ABB's RobotStudio? If so, how about the power packs.......such as Palletizing Power Pack? Thank you
Can it replace RobotStudio
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ceilingwalker -
August 22, 2023 at 2:36 PM -
Thread is Unresolved
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Short answer: not 100%. This isn't a slam against RDK, I love it, but 3rd-party sim software gives up fidelity -- it's unavoidable. Even Siemens ProcessSimulate, which is $20000/seat/year, does not do full-fidelity motion simulation without buying a brand-specific addon.
It really depends on what level of fidelity you need from your simulation. A RoboDK sim will not run actual ABB program code, and will not generate motion speeds/accel/approximation the same as the ABB. However, if you just need to do basic reach/collision checking, RDK may serve. But only RobotStudio is going to give you full-fidelity motion and accurate cycle times.
(Note: RDK may be able to use an add-on module that corrects this issue, I'm not sure. But "baseling" RDK will not).
RDK is not going to have the special ABB-specific option packages, though it would be possible to create at least basic palletizing programs in RDK. RDK can probably output basic ABB program code (may require buying an addon), but I don't think it will create program code that works with any of the special ABB option packages.
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Short answer: not 100%. This isn't a slam against RDK, I love it, but 3rd-party sim software gives up fidelity -- it's unavoidable. Even Siemens ProcessSimulate, which is $20000/seat/year, does not do full-fidelity motion simulation without buying a brand-specific addon.
It really depends on what level of fidelity you need from your simulation. A RoboDK sim will not run actual ABB program code, and will not generate motion speeds/accel/approximation the same as the ABB. However, if you just need to do basic reach/collision checking, RDK may serve. But only RobotStudio is going to give you full-fidelity motion and accurate cycle times.
(Note: RDK may be able to use an add-on module that corrects this issue, I'm not sure. But "baseling" RDK will not).
RDK is not going to have the special ABB-specific option packages, though it would be possible to create at least basic palletizing programs in RDK. RDK can probably output basic ABB program code (may require buying an addon), but I don't think it will create program code that works with any of the special ABB option packages.
Hey! Alex from RoboDK here.
Great answer here! I just want to add that we can actually have an improved ABB-specific simulation through RRS. https://robodk.com/doc/en/RRS.html#RRS
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Hey! Alex from RoboDK here.
Great answer here! I just want to add that we can actually have an improved ABB-specific simulation through RRS. https://robodk.com/doc/en/RRS.html#RRS
So, it appears as though it would eliminate my need for RobotStudio and palletizing powerpak? I have a small integrator business and don't do enough work on ABB robots to justify the rising annual cost of this software, which has me searching for alternatives or just discontinue all work on ABB robots.
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I haven't used ABB Palletizing, but on the equivalent I've seen on KUKA and Fanuc, the high-price item isn't the robot-side software, but the advanced application that generates pallet patterns automatically from box/bag size/type/shape data, and generates OLPs for the robot. That is a pretty complex piece of software, with a lot of expensive and proprietary algorithms.
If you only need to do fairly basic palletizing, it's not too hard to do in robot code on most robots, but you lose the "easy GUI" method for making changes or adding new product styles.
I haven't used it, but RDK appears to offer a Palletizing module. I had to activate it manually, but from a quick look, it appears to be serviceable, but doesn't have all the bells and whistles that, say, Fanuc PalletPro has. You'll probably have to try it out and see if it can meet your requirements.
One advantage to using RDK would be that the "export" should be brand-agnostic (limited by RDK's postprocessor list), so you might save the cost of buying the Super Palletizing option for multiple brands of robot.
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I haven't used ABB Palletizing,
I am not a huge fan of PalletPRO. It's not as versatile as ABB's palletizing PP. That being said, a lot more programming time goes into the ABB vs. Fanuc.......in my humble opinion. I only have one customer with an ABB robot and not many calls to that customer, which is why I am looking for alternative software.
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My own employer created an in-house PLC-based palletizing software for use when the extra cost/complexity of PalletPro (or the non-Fanuc equivalents) wasn't required. It works for a fair number of our smaller customers. Also has the advantage of being robot-agnostic.
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I have the Same question that Ceilingwalker posed but with a focus on 3d printing. Can RoboDK replace Robot Studio for 3d printing? I am focusing on concrete printing and don’t have a need for special nonplanar print paths at this time. I also have a grasshopper slicer that exports Gcode.
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I have the Same question that Ceilingwalker posed but with a focus on 3d printing. Can RoboDK replace Robot Studio for 3d printing? I am focusing on concrete printing and don’t have a need for special nonplanar print paths at this time. I also have a grasshopper slicer that exports Gcode.
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